From the Dean's Desk

Graduate programs

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 19 August 2019
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This morning, I had the privilege of welcoming the MBA Class of 2021 to Notre Dame. It was a wonderful opportunity to share our vision of business and welcome a terrific group of graduate students who are joining our community. It’s a responsibility as well, as the students have made a considerable commitment to invest money and time to come to Notre Dame to pursue their various life and career plans and aspirations.

To give you an idea of the level of activity we can expect in the coming weeks, here is an overview of our graduate enrollment. (Next week, we’ll present the undergraduate numbers.)

GRADUATE BUSINESS PROGRAMS   EXECUTIVE DEGREE PROGRAMS   MASTER OF NONPROFIT ADMINISTRATION  
MBA 268 EMBA South Bend Class of 2021 53 Executive MNA  
  One-Year 29 EMBA South Bend Class of 2020 48   Incoming cohort 38
  Two-Year in First Year 116 EMBA Chicago Class of 2021 39   Total students in the program 61
  Two-Year in Second Year 123 EMBA Chicago Class of 2020 34 MNA 24
MSA 67 MSF Chicago Class of 2020 32    
MSBA 354        
MSM 45        

Of particular note: We introduced two new graduate programs this fall — the residential MS in Business Analytics and the residential Master of Nonprofit Administration. The successful rollout was due to a great amount of effort on behalf of the Graduate Business Programs and Nonprofit Professional Development teams, for which I’m most grateful.

Finally, the EMNA enrollment is the largest cohort in the 65-year history of the program, so special kudos to Angela Logan and her team — Joan McClendon, Marc Hardy, Cindy Proffitt, Kim Brumbaugh, and Christopher Ditmar.

I hope you will avail yourself of every opportunity to get to know students, regardless of their program. Greet them, answer their questions, encourage them and help them be part of the Mendoza community.

Yours in Notre Dame,

Martijn

Starting with mission

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 5 August 2019
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A sure sign that the new school year is upon us is to see the new faculty members settling into their offices. This academic year, we have 17 from all five departments joining us. I hope you will welcome each one as you have opportunity.
In additional to the onboarding for new faculty members provided by the University, we have added a program specific to Mendoza to help our faculty members — new and not so new — better understand our distinctive mission as part of a Catholic research university. The Mendoza Faculty Mission Project (MFMP), co-chaired by M&O adjunct distinguished professor Anne Tsui and myself, explores how the College’s teaching and research program reflects the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and the mission of Notre Dame.
The mission project has three underlying premises:
  • The principles of Catholic Social Teaching – the intrinsic dignity of every person, solidarity and subsidiarity – are universal (or “catholic” with a small “c”), oriented toward serving all people and society as well as advancing general human flourishing. 
  • The mission of the University can only be accomplished in a community where everyone can contribute, i.e., within a community with genuine diversity and inclusion.
  • The principles of Catholic Social Teaching have a distinctive place at Notre Dame as stated in the University’s mission statement: “As a Catholic university, one of its distinctive goals is to provide a forum where, through free inquiry and open discussion, the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions and every other area of human scholarship and creativity.”
MFMP plans a series of activities through the year to encourage discussion and the opportunity to learn more about Notre Dame and how the principles of Catholic Social Teaching can be applied to business. We also bestow the Mendoza Faculty Research Award to research from each of the five academic departments that fulfills the mission of Mendoza research contributing to the common good.
If you are interested in learning more about MFMP or participating in its activities, please contact Anne Tsui (atsui@nd.edu). I hope you that you will consider participating in one of our activities.
In Notre Dame,
Martijn 

Official start

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 1 July 2019
Today marks the start of my official tenure as the Martin J. Gillen Dean. I am very grateful for all your help and support (and patience!) during my service as interim dean, and look forward to continuing to work with you as the full-term dean.
I am honored to serve in this challenging role, and I am grateful for the trust being placed in me. I am fully committed to advancing Mendoza’s distinctive mission as a Catholic business school, where we seek to do top academic research and educate business leaders who contribute to human flourishing, cooperate in solidarity and compete with excellence.
I’d like to briefly reiterate the vision for the College that I presented during the recent faculty and staff meetings, namely to elevate, cooperate and integrate.
For our programs, this means to explore the following questions:
  • How can we elevate our curriculum, e.g., by offering more challenging courses?
  • How can we better cooperate across campus, serving all Notre Dame students?
  • How can we present an integrated vision of business, integrating the business disciplines with both the humanities and analytics?
There are three areas of focus:
  • Integrating coding, analytics and big data across all majors, concentrations and programs.
  • Expanding experiential learning, with more opportunities for our students to participate in internships, consulting projects and service learning.
  • Emphasizing business as a force for good, based on the C/catholic (universal) human values that make Mendoza distinctive.
I think that over this past year, we’ve made great progress toward this vision by introducing new undergraduate minors, opening courses to first-year business students and non-business majors, doubling the enrollment in the MBA course Business on the Frontlines and reorganizing the structure of the College’s administration to include five associate deanships, to name a few items.
You all have important roles to play in shaping the future of Mendoza. I encourage you to consider me as always available, to let me know how I can better serve you, and I look forward to your feedback and ideas.
In Notre Dame,
Martijn

Circle of excellence awards

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 24 June 2019
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The latest biannual edition of the Mendoza Business magazine was distributed to approximately 25,000 alums, faculty, staff, students, prospective students and faculty, and friends of the College. As a publication, the magazine presents a comprehensive view of Mendoza, from our alumni stories to research to thoughtful pieces about significant trends in business and society.
We were recently informed that the College has won three CASE Circle of Excellence Awards, namely a gold for magazine redesign, a silver for the Acumen enewsletter and a silver for the Dean's Report. The COE awards are considered to be perhaps the most prestigious awards for higher education communications and public relations. (Here's a link to the press release for more information.)
This outstanding achievement and the success of the Mendoza Business magazine, Acumen and the Dean's Report, among the many contributions of the Communications team, can only be attributed to the amazing work from the team which includes Carol Elliott, Melissa Jackson, Zara Osterman and Candice Cleveland. I am personally grateful to this team for their ongoing hard work and commitment to produce work that is so is timely, visually interesting, interesting in content and award winning!
In Notre Dame,
Martijn 

Staff retirements, part 2

Martijn Cremers

Martijn Cremers

Monday, 17 June 2019
Last week, we highlighted three of our staff retirees — Sharon Clancy Orban, Paul Slaggert and Phil Corporon. Following are farewell comments from three more:
Marlene Wasikowski
Current Title/Department: Administrative Assistant, Department of Finance
Starting Title/Department: University Archives, Assistant Archivist
Started at Mendoza/ND: 1995
I am very grateful for the tremendous educational opportunity that my job at Notre Dame provided for my three children. Two are ND grads and one graduated from Saint Mary's and all have good jobs. I will miss all the people whose friendships I hold dear, the day-to-day interactions with faculty, staff, and students, and the enlightening conversations I have had with the most learned professionals in academia. I look forward to retiring to a less hectic pace of life in our own ‘Mayberry,’ travels with my husband, and a new grandson to love and spoil.
Judy Truitt
Current Title/Department: Employer Relations Program Manager/Graduate Business Career Services
Starting Title/Department: Temp/MBA Career Development
Started at Mendoza/ND: 2005
Since childhood, Notre Dame has been an integral part of my life. I have appreciated the opportunity to give back to the University that has given me so much.
Karen Casey
Current Title/Department: Administrative Assistant, GBP/MSA
Starting Title/Department: Administrative Assistant, MSA
Started at Mendoza/ND: 1990
I will miss seeing many of the nice people I've gotten to know and Ken Milani's jokes. I appreciate ND helping pay for my daughter's Butler education and the opportunities that were given to me to learn so much about other cultures, professions and people.
I appreciate the generous and appreciative attitude reflected in all six of the retirees' comments. They remind me what a privilege it is to be part of the Mendoza and Notre Dame community.
Please join me in thanking them for their many contributions and wishing them all the very best. And they will keep their ND email addresses — so stay in touch!”
In Notre Dame,
Martijn 

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